WINWICK PARISH Best Kept Village COUNCIL in Cheshire – 2000 Interim Clerk to the Council: C/o Town Hall Julian Joinson West Annexe Tel/Fax: 01925 - 442112 Sankey Street Email: [email protected] Warrington Web site: http://winwickparishcouncil.org.uk/ WA1 1UH 20 February 2019 To: All Members of Winwick Parish Council Dear Councillor The next meeting of the Parish Council will be held at the Winwick Leisure Centre on Tuesday, 26 February 2019 at 7.30 pm. Yours sincerely Julian Joinson Interim Clerk to the Parish Council AGENDA 1. Apologies for Absence 2. Code of Conduct - Declarations of Interest Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interest which they have in any item of business on the agenda no later than when the item is reached. The Clerk is available prior to the meeting to give advice and/or to receive details of the interest and the item to which it relates. Declarations are a personal matter for each Member to decide. The Clerk can advise on the Code and its interpretation, but the decision to declare, or not, is the responsibility of the individual Member based on the particular circumstances. 3. Minutes To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Parish Council held on 22 January 2019. 4. Updates on Issues from Previous Meeting(s) 5. Question Time for Electors 6. Written Motions Received 1 1 7. Police / Community Issues 8. Correspondence 9. Planning Matters 10. Finance Report 11. Council Tax Support Allowance 12. Reports from Parish Council Committees • Management Committee – 12 February 2019 13. Reports from Approved Outside Body Appointments • Rights of Way Forum (Councillor Matthews) 14. Ward Reports / Updates • Houghton Green Ward (Councillors D Friend, G Friend, Matthews and Purnell) • Peel Hall Ward (Councillors Emery, Gosney and Vobe) • Winwick Ward (Councillors Gordon, Iddon and Mitchell) 15. Date and Time of Next Meeting – Tuesday, 26 March 2019 at 7.30pm 16. Chairman to move to Part 2 Part 2 In accordance with Section 1(2) of the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960, the Council may, by resolution, exclude the public (and press) from the following part of the meeting on the basis that publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted or for other special reasons stated in the resolution (including the need to receive or consider recommendations or advice from sources other than members, committees or sub-committees) and arising from the nature of that business or of the proceedings. Nil 2 2 Agenda Item 3 Winwick Parish Council Minutes of a Meeting held on 22 January 2019 Present: Councillors C Mitchell (Chair), S Emery, D Friend, G Friend, P Gosney, A Iddon, M Matthews, R Purnell and C Vobe. WPC.113 Apologies for Absence Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillor S Gordon and from Ms C Jones, Interim Finance Officer. WPC.114 Code of Conduct - Declarations of Interest There were no declarations of interest made. WPC.115 Minutes Decision – That the Minutes of the meeting held on 27 November 2018 be agreed and be signed by the Chair as a correct record. WPC.116 Appointment to the Management Committee Members were informed that there was currently one vacancy on the Management Committee. There had previously been five Members on the Committee, but one Member had resigned. The Committee currently comprised Councillors Mattthews (Chair), Gordon, Gosney and Iddon. Councillor Matthews indicated that the Committee would benefit from a broader range of expertise as it endeavoured to bring the Leisure Centre into a more sustainable financial position and that an additional Member from the wards south of the M62 might be an advantage in considering how to market the Leisure Centre to those residents. The Committee met on every second Tuesday of the month and dealt with finance and general purposes issues regarding the Leisure Centre. Councillor Iddon added that if just one Member submitted their apologies, the effectiveness of the Committee could potentially be reduced. Members considered the possibility changing the date of the meetings, so as not to clash with existing councillor commitments, and also the possibility of splitting up the work of the Committee. Ultimately no formal changes were proposed. Councillor Matthews agreed to keep the situation under review. Decision – To note the position regarding the vacancy on the Management Committee. WPC.117 Appointment to the Millennium Trust Fund Members heard that there was currently one vacancy on the Millennium Trust Fund Body. The Trust was intended to fund small educational and training requests or specific projects. The Trust should meet a minimum of once per year and previously had been meeting twice per year. However, the Trust had not met within the last twelve months following the resignation of the former Responsible Finance Officer. 3 Agenda Item 3 Current Members of the Trust Body were local resident John Worthington and Councillors Iddon and Purnell. Councillor Matthews indicated that although the Fund’s bank account no longer attracted sufficient interest to cover the annual award of small grants, it might be possible to run down the capital over a period of say 10 years. Decision – To approve the appointment of Councillor Matthews to the Millennium Trust Fund Body and to arrange a meeting of the Trust in the near future. WPC.118 Updates on Issues from Previous Meetings Members considered a schedule which outlined actions and referrals from previous meetings of the Council. A significant number of issues had been completed or were progressing well. In connection with Action 29 – Parish Precept, some figure were included on the Agenda for discussion later in the meeting. Councillor Iddon referred to Action 32 – Reinstatement of Commemorative Plaques, and indicated that she had not yet been able to track down all of the plaques, but would report back at a future meeting. Decision – To note the position regarding updates from previous meetings. WPC.119 Question Time for Electors A number of residents were present at the meeting and the following issues were raised:- Parish Precept A resident enquired whether the Council Tax Support Allowance (CTSA) was the main reason for the proposed increase in the Council Tax rates payable for 2019/20, as that represented a large increase on the previous year. He enquired whether the main reason for the increase was, in fact, the £37,870 proposed from Parish funds to support the operation of the Leisure Centre. The level of support was set against a background of pubs going out of business and he queried what might be done to mitigate future rises in the cost of the support required from the Council’s budget. He asked for further clarification of the information regarding the Council Tax Support Allowance and the Council Tax Base. Response: Mr Joinson, Interim Clerk, responded that further information and some options regarding the Precept appeared later on the Agenda. The Council Tax Base was calculated from an assessment of the number of properties in the area eligible to pay Council Tax, but was adjusted to give an average figure as if all properties were in fact Band D properties. The Council Tax Base multiplied by the Band D rate of Council Tax gave the total amount of Precept which the Parish Council could raise. The CTSA was a scheme that reduced the Council Tax paid by certain low income households. The Council Tax Base, therefore, needed to be adjusted downwards to factor in this ‘lost’ income. 4 Agenda Item 3 Councillor Matthews indicated that further information had been sought from Warrington Borough Council about how the CTSA changes had been applied across the whole Borough, to ensure that Winwick was only paying for its share. Mr Joinson confirmed that a reply had been received from the Borough Council to confirm that Winwick was only paying for CTSA claims in the area of the Parish. He undertook to circulate a copy of the reply to all councilors. In respect of the Leisure Centre issue, Councilor Matthews reported that the financial situation had stabilised. The figures up to the Christmas period were encouraging. It would not be possible for the Council to simply close the Leisure Centre to cut costs as there would be on-going costs to mothballing the Centre. The Management Committee and Management Team were working hard to bring more people into the Centre to maximise revenue. Leisure Centre Costs A resident noted that a significant proportion of the cost of operating the Leisure Centre was linked to staffing and stock. He asked whether savings could be made by running the operation as a community centre only. He also queried how much greater the planned £38k support was than for previous years and whether that support would be unlimited in future years. That was a particularly, worrying scenario as parish council precepts were not capped in the same way as principal councils and runaway expenditure could give rise to large increases in the Council Tax. Response: Councilor Matthews commented that opening the Leisure Centre as a community centre only might not be viable, since those same community customers used the bar and contributed to the Centre’s income. The Parish Council’s support to the Leisure Centre operation would be similar to last year and all concerned were doing their best to keep the need for financial support to a minimum. Closure of the Leisure Centre would not be an effective solution and would impact on users such as the nursey and slimming groups, etc. The alternatives to continuing to operate the Centre were potentially worse.